Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

[Dionysos]

So... What do people think?

Are people excited yet, or is it taking a bit longer to get hyped up this time?

The reason I ask that is that I saw people discussing it on the Discord recently that despite being Star Wars fans they don't yet feel hyped enough for it.

Unlike a lot of people I did enjoy The Last Jedi (but recognise it had flaws) and I am curious to see the direction they'll take the franchise now. However, I'm also a little bit concerned that they'll just pull it all back into a predictable outcome. That said, it'll be interesting to see how the Emperor fits into things again. Ian McDiarmid's sinister performance as Palpatine is always mesmerising.

 

[mothcorrupteth]

Yeah... You don't want to know what I think.

Here's the thing: I was an adolescent of the 90's. I transitioned from boy to man (though some would say just a bigger child) with the Expanded Universe and the GOUT (George's Original, Unedited Trilogy) VHS tapes as my moral guides. When I rifled through the local library's science fiction section, I held names like Kevin J. Anderson and Timothy Zahn in a level of honor just hairs below Lucas himself, who to my mind was only a few steps below Jesus Christ. (I'm not trying to be blasphemous; I'm just engaging in a little hyperbole.) Lucasfilm treated the EU as true canon equal to the films. We 90's Star Wars fansate up the Thrawn Trilogy and Crimson Empire and Tales From Jabba's Palace. It was canon. There was no separate section in the Lucasfilm-published Essential Guides for characters who appeared only in the EU as opposed film characters. It was canon, on an equal level. Period.

The less said about George's subsequent insults to that canon through his endless retcons in the Special Editions, the Prequels, and The Clone Wars, the better. But Anderson and Zahn built the franchise back up from the derelict status George left it with in the 80's, and George exploited all that goodwill that he didn't even earn, from my perspective.

So understand. I have an ant's worth of patience for Disney, who went one step beyond George and just made the EU completely non-canon on the excuse that "they needed creative room to tell new stories" and then turned right around and proceeded to cut and paste elements of the EU stories onto a much sloppier plot arc.

I don't need to see "Episode IX." I already read it and heard the audio drama when it was called Dark Empire. And badly conceived and fanfictiony as that version of the "ooh, look, the Emperor is back!" story is, it's still probably going to outclass "Episode IX: We're Still Not Sorry We Called You All Racists But Look We Got Rid of Ruin Johnson."

And in case you're wondering, no, I didn't tell you what I really think. This is the polite and fit-for-public version.

 

[Enone]

I can't say I am a mega fan or anything; mostly just a casual person who invests time in the movies occasionally. I didn't consume anything from Extended universe (however, I do know some things), and for me, the new trilogy maybe stings a bit less.
I can't say I am fascinated as I was with the original one, but hey - I am also the person who quite liked prequels (you will pry Anidala from my cold dead hands), yet I also recognize that the 9th movie has A LOT to live up to.

Mostly because the Last Jedi was so lackluster. It doesn't benefit from the constant change either, as I understand there was no single director assigned to both movies. That can't be good... and now we get another change, and the question is whether this movie will ignore Last Jedi, as Last Jedi ignored Force awakens? As it stands, I am fairly cautious about this trilogy being some disjointed mess and it saddens me a bit. The least they can do is finish this trilogy is a good way, that's all I ask.

 

[mothcorrupteth]

I am also the person who quite liked prequels (you will pry Anidala from my cold dead hands), yet I also recognize that the 9th movie has A LOT to live up to.

Technically, the mainstream pro-EU position is that everything up until 2014 is canon. Mainstream proponents argue this because later EU contributions retconned the contradictions, and this allows mainstream EU proponents to counter the argument that the old EU was just as bad as the new stuff. Then, if you're pro-EU, you're free to "like" whichever part of the EU you want, so long as you acknowledge it was canon. So from the mainstream movement, your beloved Amidala is safe.

I'm more radical. I indulge in headcanon. I only accept everything that came before May 16, 1999--the darkest day in Star Wars history prior to Lucas selling out to Disney. I acknowledge that the Prequels were good in concept and much more original than the Disney films, but they were still flawed in execution and introduced contradictions that are far more problematic than the only substantial continuity problem of the GOUT (Leia having "always known" Luke was her brother). So, yeah. I personally won't pry Amidala from your cold, dead hands, but if I had my way she would be a Dallas-style dream that Luke had one night after eating too much Bantha Surprise.

 

[LovingOfLightning]

Well I was a child when A New Hope was released!
Stunned to see the figures I used to play with are now blockier and going new at prices that would have ruined my poor mother had it been 1977!
I will see The Rise of the Skywalker.
NO! It will NEVER please everyone. There's no way it can tie up the entire series of films.
Has it become more commercial with Disney? What was it before though? Just as "branding" is important on social media do you need a big brand push to get a movie?
"The original didn't" well in a way it did as there were tonnes of merch tied in to A New Hope. Just not on this scale.
Will I watch reviews on YouTube of it?
Well Red Letter Media are the on!y ones worth watching. The rest seem angry men in bedrooms.

I drifted from the Star Wars series in the 90's. Hated the prequels.
But turning out to see The Rise of the Skywalker. Part ritual, part curiousity, but mostly because I'm able to choose to be able to do.

That's just my take, you obviously do you?

 

[mothcorrupteth]

Has it become more commercial with Disney? What was it before though? Just as "branding" is important on social media do you need a big brand push to get a movie?

A lot of us feel that was where George went astray. I never minded the commercialism per se, but it became evident with the Prequels that Georgie was more interested in using the story as a big advertisement for the toys.

Will I watch reviews on YouTube of it?
Well Red Letter Media are the on!y ones worth watching. The rest seem angry men in bedrooms.

Most of it is the Star Wars equivalent of FOX News and CNN, yes, but don't write off Nerdrotic (Gary Beuchler). Never as funny as Red Letter Media, but Gary keeps the tone calm, even when he's reading superchats of more bellicose fans. I may be an angry man in a bedroom myself, but I prefer to be angry over the raw, disinterested truth than imitating the other apes howling around the water hole.

But turning out to see The Rise of the Skywalker. Part ritual, part curiousity, but mostly because I'm able to choose to be able to do.

That's just my take, you obviously do you?

That's all you can do. I don't fault nobody for seeing a movie they want to see, or playing games they want to play. I like my Star Wars Holiday Special, interracial Wookiee porn (pirated off the Holonet by none other than Ernest Borgnine) included, and I never thought Teräs Käsi was that bad. Something I share in common with orthodox EU fans is the pragmatism; my enemy is the Rodent Empire, not you fine people. But just the same, I will fight with my dollar for my Star Wars, not Bob Iger's agitprop imitation.

 

[Dionysos]

This appeared on my Twitter feed.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1200244662092484608

I haven't thought about Rise of Skywalker for ages, despite it coming out in a few weeks and it being a landmark (the ending of the sequel trilogy and drummed up to be the ending of the three trilogies). I don't know why I haven't thought much about it, but this video made me think about it again so it deserved a share.

It's interesting seeing a selection of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews from the different generations of Star Wars history.

I hope people like Rise of Skywalker. By its very existence I suspect it is doomed to never appeal to all fans, but hopefully it can appeal to some.

 

[Dionysos]

Who has seen it so far?

Thoughts?

I saw this the other day. I definitely think that people have greatly exaggerated how bad the film is. The internet does appear to make extreme voices louder, so that might be it.

In my opinion the film was good, but not excellent and certainly not a classic. I enjoyed it in the moment but I don't think it will become a particularly memorable Star Wars film over time. The film played it safe and did what it needed to do in many ways to wrap up the saga. There is still plenty left unexplained, however...

There were a number of cheesy moments (Star Wars always has them) and many fan-servicey moments, so maybe the balance was off for many people and I get that.

Not all of the fan-service parts were bad though. I was happy to see Lando again, and also Final Fantasy fans like me would appreciate the return of Wedge (despite not knowing why he left it so long to lend his support to the Resistance).

Some characters were also sidelined, unfortunately. Both Rose and Hux were underused in this film.

Flawed, not as brave as The Last Jedi, but still worth a lot more than a 1 star rant-review.

Just some scattered thoughts on the film so far.

 

[Raspberry]

Who has seen it so far?

Thoughts?

I saw this the other day. I definitely think that people have greatly exaggerated how bad the film is. The internet does appear to make extreme voices louder, so that might be it.

In my opinion the film was good, but not excellent and certainly not a classic. I enjoyed it in the moment but I don't think it will become a particularly memorable Star Wars film over time. The film played it safe and did what it needed to do in many ways to wrap up the saga. There is still plenty left unexplained, however...

There were a number of cheesy moments (Star Wars always has them) and many fan-servicey moments, so maybe the balance was off for many people and I get that.

Not all of the fan-service parts were bad though. I was happy to see Lando again, and also Final Fantasy fans like me would appreciate the return of Wedge (despite not knowing why he left it so long to lend his support to the Resistance).

Some characters were also sidelined, unfortunately. Both Rose and Hux were underused in this film.

Flawed, not as brave as The Last Jedi, but still worth a lot more than a 1 star rant-review.

Just some scattered thoughts on the film so far.

I think it got the hate that it deserves. The movie is highlight of all the mistakes of The Disney Trilogy coming into a single movie.

Although Star wars always had cheesy moments, i don't think that is what makes stars wars for what it is.

Overall, it was meh.....it did better than what it deserved, but it was still bad. too fast paced, didn't commit to anything. It just doesn't come off as a movie we were supposed to get but a movie that was compromised.

 

[Linnaete]

WARNING. My post will contain major spoilers unmarked. This is because I'd rather not faff around with an ocean's worth of spoiler tags. ​

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I did say spoilers will be unmarked!

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You sure you want to proceed?

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Last chance?

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Well, you were warned.

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Okay, let's start with the movie's positive offerings. Firstly, and I feel this was sorely missed in The Last Jedi, the Rey-Finn-Poe trio is back in full force and given ample opportunity to quest together as a group, bouncing dialogue around and off each other and genuinely coming across as a likeable, cohesive group for the most part. While I don't believe this script handles it with the deftness and grace of The Force Awakens, as Chris Terrio isn't exactly Lawrence Kasdan, this movie shines brightest when it comfortably allows the dynamic of the group and between each member to play out organically - at least when Poe isn't oddly starting off the film being overly abrasive to Rey for accidentally dropping a tree on BB-8. I reached the end of the film and was thoroughly convinced that the trio shared enough time on screen together to warrant looking like a group of triumphant friends rather than a loose rabble of work colleagues.

I will be remiss to not mention the actors' performances. I think Daisy Ridley shines the most when the camera focuses on her face and allows her time to non-verbally convey every tumultuous thought and feeling racing through her character's head without needing a single piece of dialogue to flat out tell us what she's agonising over. Meanwhile Adam Driver's speaking role oddly ends in this film after Harrison Ford's appearance, but for the rest of the film, his acting is completely done through his face and body language - and it is beautiful to witness. In particular, I fondly recall that triumphant, defiant shrug he gives to the Knights of Ren when he pulls out the transferred Lightsaber. Adam Driver is perhaps the most consistent actor throughout the trilogy, and truly brings to life Kylo Ren's overcompensating attempts at authority and gravitas, to the moments of pure unbridled rage, to the most human moments when he's paralysed by the ghosts of a past legacy he so outwardly wishes to jettison, but is unable to.

Unfortunately, my overall feelings about the film are more negative than anything, so the rest of this post will primarily consist of unorganised, scattered thoughts about everything that bothered me from start to finish.

Firstly, Rey Palpatine. Does it work? On paper, there's no reason why this doesn't work. You absolutely can do wonders with a story about a young woman born into a legacy of evil, whose sinister lineage utterly and unavoidably consumes her life from the moment she was born, plaguing her with this foisted identity that she cannot easily jettison, and a lineage that bestows upon her nothing but social exclusion, ire from others and a permanent, lingering fear of herself. You can develop this character by allowing her to come to the independent realisation that legacy and birthright do not define you as a person; it is up to you to forge your own path and identity - let your deeds and your beliefs determine who you are, not blood. But this movie does not do that. It had no chance in hell of successfully pulling this off in the third and final film of the trilogy. Rey Palpatine does not thematically work anywhere near as well as it could because she has never grown up under the shadow of her grandfather. Palpatine exerted absolutely no insidious (ha!) influence on her at any prior point in her life that she desperately wishes to expunge for the sake of closure and peace of mind. This isn't two decades worth of internalised agony and stigma to overcome - she's purely taking up a blade against a stranger.

The preferable course of action should have been Rey Nobody in my opinion. Who cares if Rey appears to be preternaturally capable of harnessing the Force? The Force has always been this nebulous, unknowable thing with some form of will of its own and desire to seek redress and balance. Luke Skywalker has already cut himself off from the rest of the galaxy and effectively the Force itself, while Ben Solo succumbed to the Dark Side, so there's nothing unbelievable about the Force simply electing to 'awaken' in the magnitude it ostensibly does within Rey, as a destined countermeasure against a new Dark Side pursuit for total dominance. Hell, if we're to accept that Palpatine did not literally create Anakin as a biological son but rather willed and manipulated the Midichlorians to kickstart the cell division process to create a foetus, then Anakin is technically a nobody too. Why is it okay for this particular nobody slave boy to be preternaturally powerful with the Force, but Rey by contrast is suddenly a 'Mary Sue'? Hang on, don't answer that. I think I have a solid clue as to why this is the case, and I wager it's because she's a woman.

With Rey Nobody, this trilogy could have at least extolled the inspiring message that it matters not who you are and where you're from - your potential to be a hero and an agent for positive change in the world...well, galaxy, shouldn't be tied to your blood and your superior genes. If it was ever purely about genes, then Palpatine's son shouldn't have been effortlessly murdered by a simple blade wielded by an ordinary mercenary. Heck, Finn is supposedly Force sensitive too, in spite of hailing from no prominent ancestry, and perhaps THAT little plot point could have actually gone somewhere instead of disappearing to the wayside like so many other things.

Rey should have stayed as the daughter of selfish junk traders. She spent much of her formative years and adult life in practical solitude scavenging and barely eking out a living on the sad false hope that just maybe, her parents would change their minds and come back to look for her. Then things would be okay again, because she would at least belong to someone and somewhere. The Last Jedi was building her as a flawed protagonist desperate to seek out an easy answer to her quest to find somewhere to belong to; she seeks Luke out primarily under the illusion, that if she can be a Jedi Master's apprentice, she can at last finally be somebody. When Luke rebukes her at first, Rey seemingly does the unthinkable and seeks out Kylo Ren instead, precisely because her own desperation to find somewhere to belong to easily allows Kylo to pull himself into her orbit and gaslight her with tempting offers.

Think about how crushed Luke was when Vader revealed the twist to him. Poor Luke spent one and a half films convinced that his father was a war hero slain by the evil Darth Vader, and his path to the Rebellion was seemingly this straightforward quest to avenge a person whom Luke had essentially romanticised as a myth-like figure in his head. The worst news to him was finding out that his father and Vader were one and the same, because suddenly his foundational beliefs flew out the window. Suddenly nothing was straightforward anymore; suddenly he was questioning the truth of everything and of himself. Luke emerged stronger for it in Return of the Jedi by optimistically pledging, in spite of both Ben and Yoda's beliefs that Vader was beyond redemption, to appeal to his father's humanity. The worst news for Rey on the other hand, would have been a confirmation that she hails from nobodies and has never truly belonged anywhere. There's no noble legacy to take the banner of and finish what they started, nor is there a reviled familial past that has to be put right. Both would bring fairly easy answers for her, but Rey's development shouldn't be about the easy answers. It should have consistently been about independently forging her own person and purpose. It would have made the contrast and parallels with Kylo as an antagonist even more pronounced, because Kylo on the other hand is the scion of a prestigious legacy who desperately wants to believe that the only viable legacy he needs to take up is the myth-like figure of Darth Vader in his head. Rey has no past and must learn to stride forward as her own person. Kylo Ren cannot independently forge his own path forward and is forever haunted by many spectres of the past. This is the central tenet of their conflict.

Beyond that, the movie's story is all over the place. The first half is a rushed video game fetch quest to find MacGuffins in order to unlock the final dungeon and face the final boss. It tries to shock and lead the audience into believing that certain characters may have actually died, but its rapid pacing and lack of guts and commitment to actually follow through with these "deaths" just ultimately make them laughably inept in every way possible. For example, Rey accidentally destroys a transport ship that allegedly contains a captured Chewbacca. She and Finn howl in horror, and for the briefest moment, so is the audience. Then in the literal next scene, First Order senior personnel discuss an interesting new prisoner they've captured, and it's...Chewbacca! The moment that scene concludes, the heroes are grieving Chewbacca's seeming loss for a few minutes, only to reaffirm their determination to fight on to ensure the Wookie's untimely demise isn't in vain. Except the audience now knows the overgrown furball isn't dead, so all this scene presents is cheap dramatic irony instead of genuine melancholy.

Ochee(?) the hunter/mercenary/whatever he was had been tasked by Palpatine to hunt down Rey when she was a small child. Okay. In response her parents literally sold their daughter to slavery on Jakku as the ultimate final act of their love. Fucking what now??? Ochee captured her parents and took off with them on his ship in order to interrogate them as to their daughter's whereabouts...when Rey as a little girl was standing right there, screaming for her parents to come back. Okay???? And Ochee had this Sith dagger or something and for reasons that elude me, he had clues as to the location of a Sith Wayfinder etched onto the blade in Sith language that requires C3PO's memory wiped to translate...oh and the dagger is also a vital clue as to the exact whereabouts of the Wayfinder on Endor when you conveniently stand on a specific spot and line the landscape up with the shape of the dagger???? What the fuck is this nonsense? You see how it just sounds like a video game? I was half-expecting a video game HUD to pop up with the words 'Objective Complete' flashing on the screen along with a checklist of quest requirements.

Oh yes, Rose is relegated to computer duty. Kelly Marie Tran was dogged by alt-right trolls on social media to the point where she had to go offline is perhaps the most shameful display of how toxic a huge section of the Star Wars community is. Utterly loathsome without reprieve. And I suppose JJ Abrams was so desperate to make this film as much of a crowd pleaser as possible that he deemed it necessary to completely sideline Rose. Hell, the new pointless droid has more involvement in the story and screen time than poor Rose, but I wager that's because the droid will be able to sell new toys. In another production under a more stalwart director, perhaps Kelly can find another prominent role where she'll actually be treated with proper dignity and respect.

Finally, this film did Luke Skywalker dirty. In The Last Jedi, Luke's act of literally projecting himself across the galaxy to buy the besieged Resistance rump time and opportunity to flee, AND to school Kylo despite not even being physically there is a wonderfully fitting pacifist strategy to be expected from the guy who elected to defeat Vader not with a sword, but with a heartfelt plea to his father's humanity. The ending of The Last Jedi with the Force-sensitive broom kid represents how Luke Skywalker, through his actions and with a feat unheard of, effectively renewed and forged a new legend for himself as a symbol of hope. And what does Poe in The Rise of Skywalker tell Zorii Bliss? Apparently no one answered Luke's call. Apparently everyone is too frightened to take up arms. So that massively undermines Luke's final act. So what actually inspires enough people to change their minds all of a sudden and hop into battle on Exegol against an entire fleet of planet-destroying Star Destroyers? I don't know, but apparently Lando Calrissian is just the most persuasive person in the entire damn galaxy???

So overall?

Sigh.

I won't lie. It's not like I had no enjoyment whatsoever from seeing this film. Hell no, I was definitely enchanted by John Williams' score punctuating scenes and lending them much emotional gravitas. I and many others shed tears when Chewbacca let out a primal cry of grief upon hearing of Leia's passing. I was captivated by the actors' performances, and Ian McDiarmuid will always be a delight to watch, because despite the Emperor being so one-note in his appearance this time vis-à-vis the prequel appearances, the man still brings out the much-needed ham. The climactic space battle is lacking, if I'm honest. Personally I just find the notion that an entire megafleet of Star Destroyers equipped with the powers of a Death Star each somehow needs to rely on an external signal transmitter (because they work fine in space, but on a planet with atmosphere, their sensors don't know which way up is? That is nonsense.) can be so easily disabled by just concentrating fire on one or two capital ships is...underwhelming. Of the Disney films, I think Rogue One has the best ship battle sequences.

However, this film just isn't bad enough to be ironically enjoyable like the prequels. Revenge of the Sith for example is a woefully inept film in terms of execution, but it is brimming with quotable lines and so many enjoyable moments worth the umpteenth rewatch. Nor is this film anywhere near good enough to be anything other than a mediocre romp. This trilogy is so sadly disjointed that I wonder if this is simply because Disney rushed production - that they were overly eager to make a quick ROI on buying out the IP and LucasFilm and maintain high stock value, so elected to get a new trilogy up and running as quickly as possible with a mere gap of two years between each production, without affording adequate pre-planning time to sketch out even a rough, coherent idea of where this sequel was to go.

And it shows.

A disjointed trilogy with conspicuous clashing visions. Rian Johnson attempted a more thematically nuanced and character-driven peek into what Star Wars could be beyond simple nostalgia baiting and the usual old plot beats. JJ Abrams in return aims for a cookie cutter crowd pleaser, only to come out with something that feels creatively bankrupt. Let's bring back the Emperor. Let's essentially repeat Vader's redemption sort of. Let's have it end on yet another twin sun dusk on Tatooine. Let's have the old homestead where Luke grew up!

I'm sure young children who will grow up with these films will absolutely love this trilogy to bits. I'm happy for them, and I'm especially happy for the little girls who are delighted to see someone like Rey as a prominent main lead. In time I'm sure when these children grow up, the trilogy as a whole will be looked back on more fondly, in a similar way to how the prequels are slowly being rehabilitated, as the kids who grew up watching them are now more eager than ever to discuss everything positive about them. And I actually can say something positive about the prequels. They're woeful movies, but they have so many sound ideas and ways to expand the Star Wars universe in meaningful ways.

This trilogy by contrast resets the status quo by having another empire and rebellion setup, and now it ends with practically the identical outcome as with the end of Return of the Jedi. The empire is crippled and all its leaders are dead. Maybe in 30 more years time, a new offshoot of this offshoot of the old empire will blow up more planets again?

 

[Dionysos]

SPOILERS BELOW AS ABOVE!

DO NOT READ IF WANT TO AVOID!





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Rey Palpatine does not thematically work anywhere near as well as it could because she has never grown up under the shadow of her grandfather. Palpatine exerted absolutely no insidious (ha!) influence on her at any prior point in her life that she desperately wishes to expunge for the sake of closure and peace of mind. This isn't two decades worth of internalised agony and stigma to overcome - she's purely taking up a blade against a stranger.
The preferable course of action should have been Rey Nobody in my opinion. Who cares if Rey appears to be preternaturally capable of harnessing the Force? The Force has always been this nebulous, unknowable thing with some form of will of its own and desire to seek redress and balance. Luke Skywalker has already cut himself off from the rest of the galaxy and effectively the Force itself, while Ben Solo succumbed to the Dark Side, so there's nothing unbelievable about the Force simply electing to 'awaken' in the magnitude it ostensibly does within Rey, as a destined countermeasure against a new Dark Side pursuit for total dominance.

This is a really good point. Rey didn't grow up surrounded by darkness or any sense of shame. The Palpatine lineage explains how she became extraordinarily powerful so quickly, but as you say the counterbalance idea could have been accepted by the audience too. At least some members of the audience... In fact I believed this was where they were going to be heading following The Last Jedi. They did a u-turn on that one.

That said, I did rather enjoy the return of Ian McDiarmid's Palpatine. If only he had still returned but lured her to him by falsely getting her to believe that she was a Palpatine or something like that, but he really only wanted her because she was the Force's way of counterbalancing Kylo Ren and he wanted the full power of the Force as a whole. This is not too far off his reasons in the actual film, so they really didn't need to make her his actual granddaughter. They could have made that to be a lie and another sinister jab at Rey's longing to learn about her family.

Heck, Finn is supposedly Force sensitive too, in spite of hailing from no prominent ancestry, and perhaps THAT little plot point could have actually gone somewhere instead of disappearing to the wayside like so many other things.

I do feel that Finn was more or less discarded as a character. There are parts of a story there (with him meeting up with a whole army of other Stormtroopers who for decided to lay down their arms and turn into rebels), but I feel that this aspect was not as convincing as it could have been. I'd hoped that we'd get a closer insight into Stormtrooper life and to really understand the psychology of the people underneath the helmet. Maybe more sympathy for fellow troops who have been similarly conscripted or trained from birth. They danced with these ideas at times, but not really deeply enough.

The Kylo Ren and Rey storyline was much, much stronger.

For example, Rey accidentally destroys a transport ship that allegedly contains a captured Chewbacca. She and Finn howl in horror, and for the briefest moment, so is the audience. Then in the literal next scene, First Order senior personnel discuss an interesting new prisoner they've captured, and it's...Chewbacca! The moment that scene concludes, the heroes are grieving Chewbacca's seeming loss for a few minutes, only to reaffirm their determination to fight on to ensure the Wookie's untimely demise isn't in vain. Except the audience now knows the overgrown furball isn't dead, so all this scene presents is cheap dramatic irony instead of genuine melancholy.

I'm a Chewbacca fan, yet I believe he should have actually died in that moment. Maybe if they had taken their time with the scene, extended the look of horror on Rey's face and played some sad music, etc. It could have taught Rey a very harsh lesson about her the seemingly endless extent of her powers and about how Kylo Ren had been distracting her. They could have given Chewie a postmortem medal.
Having Chewie revealed to be alive in the following scene was a bit silly and the impact of the previous scene was immediately lost.

Finally, this film did Luke Skywalker dirty. In The Last Jedi, Luke's act of literally projecting himself across the galaxy to buy the besieged Resistance rump time and opportunity to flee, AND to school Kylo despite not even being physically there is a wonderfully fitting pacifist strategy to be expected from the guy who elected to defeat Vader not with a sword, but with a heartfelt plea to his father's humanity. The ending of The Last Jedi with the Force-sensitive broom kid represents how Luke Skywalker, through his actions and with a feat unheard of, effectively renewed and forged a new legend for himself as a symbol of hope. And what does Poe in The Rise of Skywalker tell Zorii Bliss? Apparently no one answered Luke's call. Apparently everyone is too frightened to take up arms. So that massively undermines Luke's final act. So what actually inspires enough people to change their minds all of a sudden and hop into battle on Exegol against an entire fleet of planet-destroying Star Destroyers? I don't know, but apparently Lando Calrissian is just the most persuasive person in the entire damn galaxy???

That's a very good point about Luke's legacy. I do wonder what happened to 'broom kid'. The ending of The Last Jedi implied that a new generation had been inspired across the galaxy, and that the downtrodden all over were beginning to listen to the voice of hope once again.

I thought that Poe had been referring to the transmission that the Resistance sent out before Luke 'arrived' on Crait. They sent out a request for aid and realised that nobody was coming in The Last Jedi, but then Luke showed up to give them time to get out. At first I thought that Poe was simply referring to this, but if people didn't turn up to help anyone even after Luke's sacrifice then that is really depressing.


Still, I enjoyed this film on the whole. I haven't been to see it a second or third time yet though... I don't know why. Usually I do rewatch Star Wars films while they are still showing at the cinema. I haven't for Rise of Skywalker yet.

 

[Verena]

so this topic should deal with Jedi Rey in the very last star wars. Yea i seen many hate clipps on Yt but myself cannot comprehend it at all.
yes, sw 7 and 8 i found also not special, truuu. but sw9, the very last was very special to meee. i got emotionally engaged in almost every scene, which was with Rey. And she is continuously to be seen in rise of skywalker. so almost every scene was very moving. and princess leia, luke skywalker and han solo are there too, to help Rey fullfill her lifetime goal, the very special mission

my first star wars movie was empire strikes back back in 1984 as i was 12 in the cinema. the original trilogy i treat as best of all, while the intermediate didnt gave me a kick and sw7 and 8 also not.
but not with sw9. it was simply said one of my greatest movie ever seen snd even surpassing the original trilogy or new hope.